1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to weather broadcasting and display systems, and more particularly to a 3-D weather display and weathercast system utilizing real-time three-dimensional representations of meteorological data including radar gathered data combined with geographical and topographical data for television broadcasts of simulated weather patterns in three dimensions.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
For many years people have relied on weather broadcasts to help plan their lives. According to Robert Henson in his book, Television Weathercasting: A History, weather "consistently ranks as the top draw in both local and national news (when featured in the latter)." According to a poll conducted by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in 1980, weather was "the major reason that people watch the news programs".
The field of meteorology has seen significant technological advances in the past ten years. New and innovative devices such as infrared satellites, wind and temperature profilers, thunderstorm detectors, all-sky cameras, Doppler radars and LIDAR have all helped meteorologists better understand and predict weather.
However, despite public interest and technological advances, the weather display seen by television viewers has not changed significantly over the years. In nearly all television broadcasts, weather data is presented as a flat, 2-D (two dimensional) map overlay. In the mid 1970's, "color-radar" was introduced, which differentiates areas of precipitation using a color-coding scheme. Patches of heavy rain, snow or hail are all depicted the same way: in red. Lighter areas of precipitation are represented in shades of blue or green.
The typical current weathercast display represents the weather symbolically rather than realistically and usually only shows the general air temperature and where it is raining. In some instances, a superimposed satellite display of fluffy cloud patterns is shown moving along over the flat map from an exaggerated height observation point. The "blue screen" display behind the announcer still usually shows the familiar two-dimensional patchwork rainfall amounts in red, green and blue. The satellite imagery displayed on the evening broadcast may be anywhere from a half-hour to four hours old.
Clearly, current weather broadcasting is not done in "real-time" and cannot be considered "nowcasting". This is demonstrated with each major storm. Weather forecasts become "aftercasts" as footage is shown of wrecked buildings and overturned vehicles. Even when the storm is as large as a hurricane, television weathercasters usually can only base their damage information on scattered eyewitness reports.
Significant also is the information that is absent from the conventional weathercast display, such as: (1) the type of precipitation, (2) the strength and location of wind shear, (3) the presence of tornadic signatures showing rapid circular motion, (4) the location of updraft vault, (5) the location of wall clouds, (6) the location of heavy lightning activity, and (7) the wind direction on the ground.
The National Weather Service has a network of advanced S-Band Doppler radar stations in place at 138 sites in the United States, and is capable of delivering 77 different products to government meteorologists. These products include; winds aloft, lightning activity and wind shear conditions, such as microburst activity. However, of these 77 products, only 11 are commercially available through contract with several private weather service companies which act as intermediaries between the National Weather Service and the public. These companies charge for the use of these eleven products and, in order to receive the latest radar (NEXRAD) information from a particular site, a private individual or company would first have to install an expensive downlink microwave unit and file server, and would have to pay a monthly fee to receive the radar signal.
There are several patents which disclose various systems of three-dimensional representation of topographical data and meteorological data for pilots and flight simulators used in pilot training.
Manelphe, U.S. Pat. No. 5,077,609 discloses an optoelectric system of assistance in attack and navigational missions which provides a three-dimensional localization of a point of interest for a navigational resetting operation or for a firing control operation.
Yen, U.S. Pat. No. 5,135,397 discloses a 3-D weather simulation system used with a four channel digital radar landmass simulator (DRLMS) for flight simulators which integrates culture, elevation, aspect, and weather. Weather maps can be loaded into the system as weather patterns and can be expanded, rotated, and translated. Weather mass is simulated in three dimensions, i.e., having a bottom and height. Implementation entails the full or partial occultation of terrain and targets by weather, and vice versa.
The present invention is distinguished over the prior art in general, and these patents in particular by a weather-casting system for displaying dynamic real time photo-realistic three-dimensional pictorial representations of weather conditions created from meteorological data combined with geographical and topographical data. Geographical and topographical data is retrieved, digitized, and processed to produce a simulated three-dimensional volumetric image and stored in memory for later retrieval. Meteorological data including precipitation, cloud cover data, the bottom and top of cloud formations, and reflectivity and velocity of rain droplets in real-time are acquired from C-band and/or K-band Doppler radar, or non-Doppler K-band and Doppler X-band radar installations which ameliorate S-band radar data and the data is digitized and processed to produce a simulated three-dimensional image of the meteorological data. The meteorological data is combined with the geographical and topographical data to produce a digital signal capable of being transmitted to a computer, displayed on a computer display screen, and manipulated by peripheral devices connected with the computer. The combined data is displayed as a photo-realistic three-dimensional pictorial representation of weather conditions from a selective observation point and relative to a selective geographical area. The pictorial representation can be manipulated to give the visual effect of moving through a weather system to allow the viewer to visualize the effects of the weather system at various geographical locations.